


Dating the Not-so-Jolly Green Giant

by YukiRiikus_Reading_Room



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Developing Relationship, Domestic Avengers, Drug Use, F/M, Friendship, Love, Science Bros
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-23
Updated: 2013-02-23
Packaged: 2017-12-03 08:51:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/696490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YukiRiikus_Reading_Room/pseuds/YukiRiikus_Reading_Room
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>None of the Avangers understood how Bruce and Natasha fit together so well - then again, most of the time, neither did they.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dating the Not-so-Jolly Green Giant

**Author's Note:**

> This is basically a set of drabbles/moments strung together to create an overview of a relationship between Natasha and Bruce. Hope you like it!

The only sounds where electronic whirling and Jarvis’s occasional vocal progress report.  Bruce and Tony were in the lab together again. Normally, Natasha agreed with Fury that the two of them worked well together and that leaving them to their science bromance was for the betterment of all mankind, or at least the Avengers. 

But not tonight. 

Bruce has promised her that tonight, for once, they would actually go out and have dinner like regular people. Like a real couple, if Natasha could really call them that. Just as she stalked by the lab doors for the hundredth time, Tony burst out laughing.

That was the last straw for Natasha. A mad click of heels later and there she was in the middle of the lab, in her cocktail dress and heels, yanking every cord out of the walls that she could.

 

******

 

Find a vein. Press deep. Release. Repeat. 

That was how Natasha found him when she came to check on him the next morning.  Locking the lab doors and barking at Jarvis to delete any footage from SHEILD records, Natasha hurried stuck the needle and drugs in her rucksack to get rid of later as she pulled Bruce half into her lap holding his head. He looked up at her as if through a fog, his tongue thick against his teeth as he tried to explain he’d been trying to find a way to suppress “the other guy” so  could be sure to have a normal day, that he hadn’t meant to ruin their plans. 

Natasha ran a hand through his hair and cooed at him that it was alright, that she’d stay with him until he evened out, tears filling her eyes as he took her hand and wished her a happy birthday.

 

******

 

Not many people realized just how sassy Bruce could be. 

Most people generally avoided him, afraid of being around if the Hulk made an appearance.  Others who had to interact with him generally found him to be a quiet, unassuming fellow.  There were few people who got to see what lay just under the calm surface, and Tony happened to be one of them.

Tony also happened to be one of the only people brave enough to try and get Bruce drunk.

“Steve, I swear to your God, if you don’t take a drink I am going to come over there and make you have one.”  Bruce said, performing a complicated hand motion that might have once been intended to be a Z-Snap if he hasn’t lost the finer part of his motor functions due to alcohol.  Steve dutifully took a drink, coughing at little at the pungency of the alcohol.  Bruce snickered.  “Cap can’t handle his liquor.” 

“I think you’ve had enough to drink.”  Natasha said.  From her tone it was clear she was trying her best not to laugh as she gingerly took Bruce’s drink from his hand.  He immediately snatched it back, swatting away her hand when she next tried to take it.

“Girl I am just fine, calm down before you get your panties in a twist.”  Bruce quipped, Tony and Clint collapsing into each other in a fit of giggled.  “Jesus, can none of you handle alcohol?” 

 

******

 

It was the quiet mornings that Bruce liked best.

As the dim glow of early dawn filtered through the large window over the sink filling the kitchen, he padded across the cool tiles to his spot at the head of the table, smiling even through his tiredness when he saw his cup of coffee was already at his seat waiting for him.

Natasha was perpetually getting up before him, spoiling him with a pot of coffee ready for him by the time he rolled out of bed an hour later. 

Settling down into his chair he flipped open the note she’d left for him, sipping his drink as he read her message.  Some mornings he didn’t comprehend her note - he often spent more time getting lost in the sloping beauty of her handwriting than actually reading the words she’d left for him on her way out the door. 

As long as the notes ended with ‘I love you’, he was happy.

He liked quiet mornings best because of the chance they gave him to revel in stillness at the depth of love he felt for the assassin who, like him, felt love was something never destined to be hers. And yet here he was, already counting down the hours until she’d be getting home for SHIELD headquarters, counting down until he could pull her into his arms again and tell her just how much she meant to him.


End file.
